Scanning the Strange Futures of AI: Plan for possible outcomes

Background

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently wrote: “artificial intelligence is going to reorganize the world and change the course of human history.” 

On this, virtually everyone agrees: the adoption of AI technologies will drive change on a mind-bendingly massive scale. We will be living and working alongside machines that perform work that typically requires human thought.

What might that feel like?

How might it change our lives?

What should we be doing now in order to prepare?

We cannot know for sure, but we can use stories and scenarios to play with future possibilities. 

We at Accelerated By Design see a role for blending aspects of professional futures practice with co-design practice to facilitate playing with—and in—possible futures. Futures practitioners have developed tools and approaches for exploring possible futures. Co-design can help us personalize these possibilities–to develop our own stories, and infer our own actionable insights. 

The process of crafting professional futures scenarios typically begins with a horizon scan. Scenario developers gather, sift, and organize a wide range of signals of emerging change. The outputs of the horizon scan process become the building blocks of futures scenarios. 

In August, as part of our work to develop collaborative futuring tools, we introduced an early prototype of a new Horizon Scan co-design module to TVW Learning Community members.

In the weeks since, building on the feedback we received in that introductory workshop, we’ve made some significant improvements to our new module. We’re keen to share this new iteration with you. 

Meanwhile, Kathryn Cramer has been working ahead with the UVM’s Computational Story Lab, learning as much as she can about the strange reality of AI. Her ongoing graduate-level research will furnish the inputs for this prototypical exploration of our developing Horizon Scan module.

Please join us for a playful scan-mode exploration of current research at the forefront of AI. 

Our Workshop

Over 2 hours of playful experiential learning, workshop participants will have a chance to use the current prototype of our Horizon Scan module to scan the strange futures of AI. 

Workshop participants will… 

• Uncover and challenge our assumptions around the present state and potential future experiences of living and working with AI
• Explore emerging possibilities at the forefront of current AI research
• Play with how these possibilities might affect our lives in the near future
• Iterate and experiment with building blocks for scenarios exploring AI futures
• Consider how we might use these tools and approaches in our client work
• Generate feedback on ABD’s emerging work at the intersection of futures and co-design

Participants will get preview access to tools and approaches under development at Accelerated By Design, and a chance to use those tools to turn our AI research into personalized insights. They’ll also gain new language and perspectives on the future and the variety of ways in which we can explore it and co-create it. 

Our Hosts

Dee Brooks is Venture Lead at Accelerated By Design. In 2019, building on nearly 20 years in co-design practice, she published a major research paper exploring the intersection of the MG Taylor DesignShop® Process and Strategic Foresight. She is now focused on applying that research to support the growth of future-informed leadership, decision making, and strategy. 

Kathryn Cramer is Futures Lead at Accelerated By Design. Her perspective on the future runs the gamut from computational forecasting to science fiction. She has edited numerous science fiction anthologies including Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future. In 2020, while studying at OCAD University, she published A Thousand Futures: A Search for Scenario Space. 

Ryan “Rev” Romsey is Workspace Lead at Accelerated By Design. Over his more than 20 years as a Knowledge Worker with various MG Taylor related Networks and firms, he has gained deep experience that continues to inform his unique perspective on the design of work spaces as tools to support virtual and hybrid experiences of co-design. In 2020, he designed, built, and maintained the acclaimed “Equinox” for upCreation. He is currently devising the concept of a “Miro Dimension.”